Killing Time
by FlameBright
Summary: There was a sudden burst of thunder from outside, making him momentarily start as he slowly moved closer to the man lying prone on the floor... Please read and review


_**Killing Time**_

There was a sudden burst of thunder from outside, making him momentarily start as he slowly moved closer to the man lying prone on the floor of the old, partially demolished barn, he could not help but be shocked at the sight of the large, splintered beam that had obviously been shattered when the lightning had struck the roof and caused the collapse that had led to the man being transfixed through the chest.

"Oh, my God!" he exclaimed, "Stay still, try not move and I'll go and get help!"

"Don't bother…" the man whispered, his voice deep and dark, full of surprising strength – surprising, yes, because as he could plainly see, the mans entire chest had been ruptured, the ribs sprung out on either side of his chest, exposing the innermost secrets of his body to his horrified gaze.

The man grasped his hand in a vicelike grip, his hands were smeared with his blood and made slippy by other morbid fluids that had come from deep inside his body, puncturing his skin with his razor sharp nails, stared deep into his eyes and whispered, "Listen to me carefully… I, Delise De'Ath am not long for this world – even one such as I must end sooner or later whether I will it or not. I don't know your name and I don't want to know…suffice to say that I am not, ah!"' De'Ath breathed his agony as the beam shifted slightly to more securely pin him in place as he spoke, "not like you…I am what your kind would call a vampire – yes, even a Great Vampire, a Power once in this world, not that any now living would remember my name or the fear it once inspired…ah, ah! I only tell you this so that you know that it will be difficult for me to die cleanly, oh, I see you shudder and look horrified, but as you can see I am doomed – indeed were I human, I would be dead already!" Delise paused to take a shallow, pained breath before continuing, "There is only one certain way to end my pain; the stake, the sword and the fire – well and as you can plainly see, we have the stake part well and truly covered," he chuckled, however morbidly, "Please, take down one of the blades from the wall and remove my head…ah! Be warned, do it quickly for I may still be able to do you some…damage, shall we say - it is an instinctive thing and beyond my control," here he paused once more to groan in nerve shredding agony as the man leaned forward to offer some words, help, anything for God's sake!

"No! Stay back you fool or we will be both die in this unworthy hovel!" Delise released his grip on the mans arm and attempted to shove him away, but the forced movement only served to shift the beam impaling him more yet, causing his chest to expand once more as it settled further into him.

The man, breathing raggedly stammered, "But, you can't be serious, you're clearly a very ill man – there's no such as vampires – you're obviously very strong yes, but…you need medical attention and quickly."

"Bah! Fool!" Delise muttered contemptuously before focussing his gaze intently on the man eyes and whispered, "Go, fetch a cleaver and remove my head, then burn my body – every part of it, do you understand?"

The mans face was blank as he nodded his comprehension of the hypnotic orders and, like an automaton, walked to the wall of the barn and removed an old and rusted sickle that was hanging there.

He staggered back to Delise where he lay in his extreme of agony, raised the sickle high above his head, and with an abrupt downward swing severed his head from his shoulders!

Eyes still blank, he patted the pockets of his greatcoat, finally removing a silver, filigreed hip flask that still contained a large amount of whisky that he had put in there earlier for when the memories became too much.

He splashed the whisky liberally over the spastically twitching body that was now thrumming its heels on the floor, making sure not to forget the head where even now its eyes were glaring up at him seemingly blaming him for its current predicament.

Finally, the hip flask empty, he removed a book of matches from one of his other pockets, struck it and threw it onto the…corpse?!

For as he watched, snapped out his hypnotic state by completing the orders of Delise, the body sat up and reached out for him!

Gibbering incoherently with terror, he stumbled blindly away from the Thing where, as it attempted to sit up, it splashed flames around the straw strewn and wooden built barn.

The flames took, ferociously eating into anything and everything even remotely combustible, for although it was raining such as it had not rained for many years, inside the barn all was properly dried out and made the perfect tinder for a conflagration of epic proportions!

He managed to stumble, arms over his head to shield him from falling debris, sparks and flames that licked at him from the walls, where already the flames had spread, to the wide doors of the barn and out into the cooling rain, where it instantly managed to soak him through, despite the greatcoat that he wearing over his uniform.

He stood there and watched what he hoped and prayed he would never have to witness again – namely, the death of an old and powerful vampire – one moreover who would not go quietly into the grave despite his own wishes but who would fight with all the strength of his undead and powerful body!

The decapitated body had by now risen to its feet, head clasped in its arms as it tried, unsuccessfully to beat out the flames that were even now reducing it to charred, blind, stumbling cinder.

Eventually, as the man stood in silent, horrified witness, it seemed to just collapse in upon itself, consumed by the flames that even now brought down the rest of the barn with a loud crash that seemed to reverberate through the night darkened valley, the sound ricocheting from the valley walls, setting up a mournful echo that he knew he would remember for the rest of his life.

Three or four hours later, just after dawn had broken, he raised himself up from the wet grass where he had been watching the embers of the barn slowly extinguishing in the cold and wet morning air, turned back to the road and decided to head back to his barracks where he knew his platoon would be waiting for him – after all there was still a war on and he was expected to do his duty as was every other man in the country, but he knew that as long as he lived he would never forget this night – the night that he had discovered and known that absolute Evil existed in the world apart from mans normal capacity for death and destruction.

Please Read and Review as this is my first story - Thanks!


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